Rice and Hugs
by Yaegashi Yoshiki
Summary: random gift fic for energy. The main coupling is Taikeru. When Takeru finds himself in a tight jam while trying to finish his mothers present, Taichi manages to come to the rescue. Site used: http://www.amie.or.jp/~raintree/recipe/riceball4.html


A/N: random gift fic for energy. I tend to do this a lot... basically I just ask people I know for characters that they would like a fic made about them... kind of like challenging myself.  
  
A few quick notes before I get this done... I found the recipe to make the food in this fic from the web page: since almost every Japanese cookbook I have ever located has no official recipe for rice balls.  
  
Also... any of you who have read my fics before might be a lil confused. To make this harder energy challenged me to write it as absolute fluff.... no angst.... no abusive parents... no pain... no cutting... so basically... totally unlike my usual fics ^_^  
  
Anyways have fun.  
  
The sun shone softly down as Yagami Taichi, as he slowly made his way towards the park neighboring his apartment building. He had an entire day of merely relaxing planned, and was looking forward to finally attempting to recapture the tan that winter had washed away from him. He moved slowly as he wandered the streets preceding the soft green area marked off for the local school children. He smiled happily, and as he approached a crossroads, kicked a small can into the nearly empty street. He enjoyed the short spring/winter break between school years (Japanese school systems officially restart in mid April. This year it was the 21st I believe).  
  
Taichi slowly allowed his mind to recess into the back of his skull, as he merrily walked onwards, oblivious to his surroundings. It was only after a yellow furred blur rammed into him full force that he managed to regain coherency. He reached out blindly as he fell backwards and managed to grab the receding blur as it toppled towards the sidewalk under his feet. A loud crack resounded from the sidewalk as two bodies fell harshly onto the pavement.  
  
Tai's vision slowly began to refocus a few moments later, as he tried to pry his now slightly sore body off of the already hot sidewalk. He looked over to his side, and stopped in shock as he saw the now unconscious Takeru lying beside him, cradling a small shopping bag, which was now leaking a yellow fluid. Checking over Takeru's body and finding no series injuries he lightly shook the boy while checking on exactly what the liquid was. After making sure Takeru wasn't carrying any dish soap in the now crumpled bag, Taichi tentatively tasted the liquid and realized it was a normal hen's egg. This made Tai chuckle softly as he realized he had panicked over nothing.  
  
While Taichi was still laughing over his mistake, Takeru's blue eyes began to flutter open as the younger boy finally began to take stock of his situation. He moved one hand to push himself up into a leaning position as he scanned the sidewalk, his vision finally landing on the now ruined package of groceries. He gave a soft eep noise as he immediately shot over to the bag, ripping it open only to find a mess of crushed eggs and broken containers. He looked around for whoever had run into him and finally let his vision rest on the still laughing and oblivious Taichi. "You godforsaken bakana," Takeru screamed loudly at Tai, finally drawing the elder brunette's attention, "Do you know what you just did? It took me over an hour to find everything I needed! Now I have to go back into that store for the fifth time today!"  
  
Takeru continued to seethe as Taichi slowly rose to his feet, offering his hand to the younger male to help him up. After they where both righted, Taichi bent over, observing what was inside the bag. "Hmmm, lets see here... three crushed eggs, a package of now-shattered dried Nori wrappers, a bag of race.... now sticky from the crushed eggs and a bottle of sesame seeds... or what's left of it. Looks like someone was running errands for his O-Kaa-san this morning ne?" "I wasn't shopping for Kaa-san for your information! I was trying to get the stuff I need to finish making her birthday present... that is till you rammed into me!" "heh... Gomen Keru-chan... I wasn't really paying attention to which way I was going... maybe I can repay you? I'll go with you to get the groceries and even pay for th- ... did you say you've been into the store five times today? if you don't mind my asking.. .is there any particular reason?" At Taichi's odd question, Takeru's face began to flush a deep red and he hung his head slowly, suddenly staring at a small trail of ants, already heading for the sticky patch of egg on the ground. "Well.... actually... I can't seem to get her present to come out right... I have already tried cooking it four times... and I was running home since she'll be home in an hour and I won't be able to try again before her birthday..."  
  
Taichi looked at Takeru curiously, as he contemplated what the blond had just said. after waiting for a few moments, Taichi finally spoke up, "So what exactly where you trying to make? Some kind of rice dish obviously but... what exactly?" Takeru looked up at his elder friend with puzzlement as he began to slowly explain, "I'm surprised you couldn't tell from the package... I was trying to make her favorite kind of rice balls for dinner tonight... basically I keep screwing something up while cooking them... the first time the rice wouldn't stick together at all... the second time they smelled horrible... the third time the seaweed wrappers wouldn't stay on the rice balls... and the last time they looked all deformed and I couldn't reshape them." "Hmmm... well.. the first time you didn't make the rice balls fast enough and you let the rice cool off before shaping them that's why it wouldn't stick together. The second time you most probably let either the Nori wrappers burn or you let the sesame seeds fry too long. The third time you didn't cook the Nori long enough... and the last time you probably just pressed down to hard, " Taichi said as he held his chin in his hand, looking extremely thoughtful for a man who had just rammed into a friend. "You know, if you needed to have more time to try and cook her gift... you might be able to use my apartment. Hikari and O-Kaa-san are out shopping and Tou-san is at work as usual... so why don't you come over after you get your new groceries," With this, Taichi ruffled into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He counted out several yen notes and handed them to Takeru. "That should cover it... see you in a few minutes."  
  
----------(Thirty minutes later)----------  
  
Taichi moved slowly around his apartment, making sure he had set out everything Takeru would need to continue his experiments. He had just finished taking out a large load of freshly cooked rice from the family's rice cooker when he heard the door buzzer announcing Takeru's arrival. He smiled as he opened the door and ushered the young blonde into the kitchen, pointing Takeru's shoes in the right direction before joining him.  
  
Takeru stared softly at the various things Tai had spread along the counter. It looked almost exactly like his mother's kitchen, and the attempts he had made before, except that this time Takeru had some help. Taichi immediately began walking around the kitchen, unpacking the various things that Takeru had bought, and placing them at different "stations" along the counter.  
  
They started in the far corner by covering a small metal bowl with saran wrap, then slowly spooned in about a 3/4th's of a cup of rice into the bowl. With this done, Takeru brought out the filling mixture, which he had prepared at home and spooned in around 2-3 tablespoons of the filling on top of the rice. With this done they covered the topping with another 1/4th cup of rice. While Takeru began molding the now-formed rice ball into a triangular shape, Taichi had already begun to warm the Nori sheet over the stove, and as Takeru managed to finish forming the ball and had unwrapped it from it's saran wrap prison, Tai walked over and slowly pasted the seaweed paper onto the nearly finished rice ball. They took it back over to where the stove was and after arranging it in a tray, they lightly sprinkled the finished rice ball with roasted sesame seeds.  
  
----------(About thirty minutes later)----------  
  
Taichi washed his hands quickly as Takeru placed the final rice ball into the tray and carefully wrapped it in saran wrap, finishing off the roll. Takeru smiled happily as he moved next to Tai to join him in washing up and slowly looked up at the brown haired older teen. "I have to thank you Taichi-san for helping me. Without you I don't really think I would be able to have finished this." As Taichi listened to the younger boy talk, he began to blush softly and quickly turned away, trying to hide the fact that his face had begun filling with a light crimson. Tai slowly placed down the bar of soap he had been using, and after rinsing the suds, off moved away, drying his hands and sighing softly.  
  
It had become increasingly hard for the older teen to hide his feelings lately, as he had been forced into close contact with Takeru several times over the past year, with both the digital world, and with their own personal problems. He had been developing his current crush on the younger blond for the last two years, as he had watched Takeru grow up from a young mincing child into the now quite handsome teen. Tai sighed softly as he allowed his body to fall into the couch, and slowly placed his face into his hands, trying to hold back whatever emotion was now trying to flood out to the surface. As the older teen began to shake softly, forcing his own emotions down into himself, Takeru finally looked up, only to see Taichi obviously in pain.  
  
It was mere seconds later that Takeru was by Tai's side, trying to coax the older teen into telling him what was wrong. As Takeru tried and tried he slowly encircled the older teen into his arms, and felt Taichi's body stiffen then relax, falling into fit next to the young blondes body. Takeru smiled down at Taichi as the older teen began to softly cry into Takeru's shoulder. Within a few moments, Takeru was holding Tai softly, rocking him back and forth trying to calm the older male. As Takeru softly rubbed Tai's back, and began to softly murmur into the older teens ears, Tai managed to get a few chocked words out, " Gomen Keru-chan... I just.... don't know how much more of this I can take..." "More of what Taichi-san? I don't really understand what's going on here." "It's just that, " Taichi sighed softly as he finally came to a decision, "I just... have been wanting to tell you something for a while now. I think... I might be in love with you," Tai winced softly as he expected Takeru to explode at him, and slowly leaned out of the others embrace. As Tai continued to worry, he watched as several emotions flashed over Takeru's face. Confusion mingled with worry, which passed on to a doubtful look, which slowly gave way to one of Takeru's brighter smiles. "I... was really sure that you wouldn't feel that way about me Taichi-kun... but in reality... I think I have liked you since our first days in the digital world. I mean you were always there for me, when O-Nii-san left... you where the first one to come back and help me... and even before.. .you were always there to protect me and... well I guess it just eventually developed into a crush," as he spoke the last words, Takeru bent down and wrapped Taichi into a harder hug then before, squeezing the older teen softly and snuggling against his chest. Taichi sighed softly and smiled to himself as he softly rubbed the younger boy hair... after flipping his ever-present hat off. "Love you too Keru-chan, " Taichi said softly as he gently pulled Takeru up and into a kiss.  
  
Final A/N: for those that don't know, Bakana is a more insulting form of Baka or idiot in Japanese. It's kind of like calling someone a moron or adding a cuss word to idiot. 


End file.
